AfriGeneas World Research Forum

I do applaud those of the African American people who can actually say that they have proof of belonging to the Cherokee Nation, however, there are still those around whose ancestors also are a part of the Cherokee Nation and cannot prove it. Oh certainly, we, like in my case, often hear of our elders down through the ages speaking of this person or that person as being Cherokee, or their hair is this and that straight of the other, or their skin, though as dark as coal, is so smooth and so this and that. I hear even among our own how a certain person talked, or if they by any chance smoked a pipe, or had ways of Indians. Yet, we often boast of belonging to the Cherokee, especially those in North Carolina as I so belong. And yes, through word of mouth, I heard that my great grandmother Rachel Crowell was a full bloodied Cherokee, and yes my grandmother Mattie Crowell she sure enough look like a Cherokee, as so did my mother. On one census the Crowells are mentioned as mulatto, and in another time the census mention them as Black. Not a word saying that Great Grandmother Rachel was Indian. So it goes...how does one really prove it all, or do we really have to prove it? By the way, ever thought about all of the other Native Americans who lived in the region: such as the Catawba, the Chippewa, or the Crow? Ever thought about the Tuscaroras, or further down into Florida the Seminole? There were so many other Nations in the South, in North Carolina, and yet we do not identify that much with them.

Then I come back at us all because we so much identify to the Cherokee, but what about identify with those others who we came across: such as the Africans themselves, or those of German blood, or Scotch-Irish that came out of North Carolina? Yes, my background is centered around all of them. This is my opinion.